Shrimp Fajita
Shrimp fajita; grilled shrimp with peppers and onions.
Andrew Lekashman
San Diego Burrito
The San Diego burrito runs fresh and grilled where others run wet and stewed, and its signature is the California burrito: carne asada and hot french fries rolled tight in a flour tortilla.
San Antonio Breakfast Taco
Bought by the dozen for the office and the Sunday after Mass: a soft flour tortilla folded around a hot filling, with the cheap, enormous bean and cheese as the city's yardstick.
Quesarito
A burrito rolled inside a cheese quesadilla, one sandwich used as the wrapper for another, the cheese welding the shell into a single sheet. A San Diego counter trick Taco Bell took national in 2014.
Quesadilla
A folded tortilla griddled with melted cheese in the crease, defined by a pull, a freckled masa, and a Mexico City argument about whether the cheese is required at all.
Quesadilla Tex-Mex
American-style quesadilla; large flour tortilla folded with cheese and various fillings, often with sour cream, guacamole.
Quesadilla Gringa
The gringa shelved under the quesadilla heading: flour tortilla folded over melted cheese and al pastor, the crease pressed shut on the griddle. Same dish, named from the fold.
Quesadilla Grande
An oversized masa quesadilla off a Mexico City comal, often blue corn, hand-shaped long and loaded with several guisados. The capital's machete and jirafa, and the con-queso argument.
Quesadilla Frita
The quesadilla frita is the one dropped whole into a vat of hot lard, so the masa balloons and crackles into a hard golden shell around a molten core, a different machine from the dry comal entirely.
Quesadilla de Tinga
The quesadilla de tinga folds smoky chipotle-stewed chicken into corn with a melting cheese. The tinga, sweet and tart and reduced, supplies the bite its whole character.
Quesadilla de Rajas
The quesadilla de rajas is decided at the roast: poblano chiles fire-blackened until the skin peels, cut into smoky ribbons, slackened with crema, and folded into corn over a hot comal.
Quesadilla de Queso
Cheese quesadilla; simple melted cheese in tortilla.
Quesadilla de Quesillo
The version where the cheese is the whole subject: Oaxacan string cheese unwound by hand and brought up slowly to a long elastic pull, with two ingredients and nowhere for a mistake to hide.
Quesadilla de Pastor
Spit-shaved al pastor pork closed into a cheese quesadilla on a Mexico City comal; the same filling as the open taco, in a sealed fold with quesillo added.
Quesadilla de Papas
The quesadilla de papas folds the pantry's cheapest filling, mashed seasoned potato, into a griddled tortilla, and sits at the center of Mexico City's con o sin queso question.
Quesadilla de Masa
The Mexico City market quesadilla, finished from raw dough at the stall: fresh nixtamalized masa pressed to order, folded over cheese or huitlacoche, fried or comal-seared while you wait.
Quesadilla de Huitlacoche
The Aztec corn fungus, reduced down with epazote and folded with melted cheese into a fresh corn tortilla on a hot comal; central Mexican rainy-season delicacy.
Quesadilla de Hongos
The mushroom quesadilla turns on a long, dry sauté: cook the champiñones past the steam to where they brown, then bind them in quesillo for a soft, meaty bite with no meat in it.
Quesadilla de Flor de Calabaza
A quesadilla built around a flower that wilts by noon: bright orange flor de calabaza wilted fast, cut with epazote, held in a thread of melted quesillo so the cheese never buries it.
Quesadilla de Chorizo
Fresh Mexican chorizo renders its annatto-red fat straight into the melting cheese, staining it orange and seasoning it from within. Drain the grease or the fold will split.
Quesadilla de Chicharrón
A corn masa quesadilla filled with chicharrón prensado, the pressed pork scraps stewed soft in salsa verde and bound with melting cheese. Rich pork lifted by tomatillo tang.
Quesadilla de Carne
In central Mexico City a cook may ask whether you want cheese in your quesadilla at all. The beef version answers yes to both: griddled bistec and a stringing melter sealed in folded corn.